College Basketball....2010-11

This was, for me, a very enjoyable college basketball season...more so than normal.  I attribute it to a few different things (maybe four) coming together at about the same time...

The first was the Falcon team I love.  It was certainly a very bad start to the season, and just when I was despairing and thinking that the program had not moved forward past where it was when Dakich left, the team showed how it could play, and we had a little mid-winter lift.  True, that streak ended up being the exception to the rule, sandwiched as it was by two pretty weak periods of play.  But it was a lift nonetheless, and it was exciting to be playing meaningful MAC games into the second round of East games...and, exciting to think that, in fact, we might be on the upswing again, though that is (as I have written) far from certain.

The second was the emotions stirred by the last games at Anderson Arena.  I've written on this enough already, too, but I think I appreciated the game more because I was seeing it for the last time in the place that has defined it for me throughout my entire life.  So, I think I appreciated what the game means to me more in this context, as a goodbye, but also as a salute to so many memories.

The third is, oddly, ESPNU.  I know that the four-letter network is not known for being appreciated by mid-major fans, but it did guarantee to me that on most winter nights, I could tune in and see a mid-major basketball game being played by some athletes who love the game.  Many people have been writing that the UConn-Butler final proves that fans should not watch regular season college basketball....that only the post-season matters.  I would say two things.  First, you might just love the game.  But, fine, we're talking casual fans.  And I understand (and agree) that watching Big 10 games where most teams will get in the tournament with an average regular season does render the games less dramatic.

Not so in your one-bid conferences.  These are year-long cage matches that are eventually settled in the conference tournament, but there are no real consolation prizes, and when that much is at stake, seeding matters, and the regular season matters.  ESPNU helped me see games in this sphere that would never have been on TV before, and I enjoyed it.

Finally, the last thing that made this season so great was midmajority.com.  Published by Kyle Whelliston, this side is nothing less than the spiritual home of mid-major basketball, written by our poet laureate.  In case you are not familiar, for the last seven seasons Kyle has seen 100 mid-major games, much of the time funded by his readers.  What has emerged is a stunning travelogue of the places and people that make this little part of the world special--and all the more special for the obscurity they work in.

The blog is stunning, filled with incredible writing that is funny and smart.  The soul-searching pieces when Kyle was let go by ESPN are downright inspirational to anyone who thinks they are at a crossroads and trying to figure out what really matters and what is spiritual junk food....to anyone who is asking who he is.

I also read the book (One Beautiful Season) which is a collection of the posts from the Year 7 blog.  I highly recommend it....baseball has a million books like this, but not basketball.

Midmajority publishes from November 1 until the last mid-major team is knocked from the NCAA tournament...which was late the last two years.  The final post is called the Epilogue, and this year's is especially moving, an amazing 9,000 words on the season that just passed.

Part of that is because this is the last year on the road and Kyle is taking a one-year sabbatical.  He details his reasons in the epilogue, which is must read.  As unsustainable as it was, midmajority has a great run, and let's hope it keeps moving forward in meaningful if new ways.

So for all those reasons, I had a great 2010-11 season.  I certainly grew to appreciate the game more than I have in many years.  Thanks to everyone who made it so.